Born in
1326, the third
Ottoman Sultan ruled the empire from
1359 until his death in
1389. Founder of the
Janissaries, he expanded the empire into into
Serbia when he defeated a coalition of
Serbian,
Bosnian,
Montenegrin and
Bulgarian forces at the
field of the black birds. He would later be assasinated by a captured Serbian warrior,
Milosh Obilich.
Murad had made Byzantine Emperor John V his vassal, and later fought Crusaders that had come to John's aid, temporarily losing Gallipoli before it was retaken in 1371.